Camomile Tea

-by Katherine Mansfield

Outside the sky is light with stars ;

                                                         There’s a hollow roaring from the sea.

•                                                                                                                               And, alas! for the little almond flowers,
•                                                                                                                                                                                                       The wind is shaking the almond tree.




How little I thought, a year ago,

•                                                          In the horrible cottage upon the Lee
•                                                                                                                               That he and I should be sitting so
•                                                                                                                                                                                                       And sipping a cup of camomile tea.




Light as feathers the witches fly,

                                                         The horn of the moon is plain to see;

                                                                                                                              By a firefly under a jonquil flower

•                                                                                                                                                                                                       A goblin toasts a bumble-bee.



We might be fifty, we might be five,

•                                                          So snug, so compact, so wise are we!
•                                                                                                                               Under the kitchen-table leg
•                                                                                                                                                                                                       My knee is pressing against his knee.

Our shutters are shut, the fire is low,

                                                         The tap is dripping peacefully;

                                                                                                                              The saucepan shadows on the wall

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Are black and round and plain to see.